[dlw]

Rescuing an old box with 20g hd.
The most mb I can get when formating is 8,0**mb.
I just bought the hd yesterday.
The reason I bought it is the same thing happened to a 13.6gb hd.
All I could format on it was 8,0**mb.
After several attempts to format the full 13.6gb I could get nothing.
I figured the 13.6gb was dead and bought the 20gb.

Anyone know what is going on?

dlw

[Advertisements]

Howdy:

What operating system are you trying to install??

Have you checked to see if there is a BIOS upgrade for that mobo in order to "see" larger hdd's??

Murray

[Murray S.]

Howdy:

What operating system are you trying to install??

Have you checked to see if there is a BIOS upgrade for that mobo in order to "see" larger hdd's??

Murray

[dlw]

W98SE legal.

How do you check for an updated bios?
I'll see if I can find out what mobo it is.

dlw

[Murray S.]

You need to go to either the system manufacturers website and search the system or to the mobo manufacturers website..

Murray

[dlw]

All I can do is get to an 'A' prompt.
By system do you meant the bios info when it first boots up?
I'll have to tear the box apart to get to who made the mobo.

I'll get busy now.

dlw

[Murray S.]

All I can do is get to an 'A' prompt.
By system do you meant the bios info when it first boots up?
I'll have to tear the box apart to get to who made the mobo.

I'll get busy now.

dlw

No.. BIOS is what you go into when you press the key at the very start of the boot process that says something like "Press<delete> to enter setup"..

Lastly, wouldn't it be easier just to go to the computer manufacturers website??

Just curious, but how old is the computer??

Murray

[dlw]

No.. BIOS is what you go into when you press the key at the very start
That is what I meant.

Lastly, wouldn't it be easier just to go to the computer manufacturer??
It's home made (years ago).

Just curious, but how old is the computer??
Well, when I built it 166mhz chips were about the best.

Anyway, just stripped it down.
There are no markings of anykind on the mobo.
I have no idea who the manufacture is.
Award Modular BIOS V4.51PG.

I'm headed to the Award site now.
Maybe there is something there.

dlw

[Murray S.]

I think you are going to be stuck with a maximum 8gb partition.. Just make 3 of them about 7GB in size!!

Murray

[dlw]

Yea, that's about where I'm at also.

Also, off topic, when I enter an ' in this box,
every letter after that does not show up and
a loud thump is heard. Do you?
In addition, the arrow keys do not work.
Is it a bug or me?

Thanks for your help.

dlw

[Murray S.]

Work's for me..

Murray

[Tyger]

When you get into BIOS, Standard CMOS settings, make sure both the settings for each hard drive are set to Auto. Then the BIOS should automatically choose LBA mode for a drive of that size. I'm making more than a blind guess that the setting for the hard drive is now user, which is limited to 8gb drives.

[dlw]

Thanks Tyger; I'll try that.
Another problem.
The box cannot boot without the W98 Startup Disk.
Take it out and it goes so far then the error
'Insert a boot disk'.

The hd is formated; 8.0gb.
The files command.com, hymem.sys, mscdex.exe are there.

Any ideas?
dlw

Edited by dlw, 28 July 2005 - 04:59 PM.

[Tyger]

Thanks Tyger; I'll try that.
Another problem.
The box cannot boot without the W98 Startup Disk.
Take it out and it goes so far then the error
'Insert a boot disk'.

The hd is formated; 8.0gb.
The files command.com, hymem.sys, mscdex.exe are there.

Any ideas?
dlw

There should be three hidden files on disk for it to boot, io.sys, and two more I don't recall. If you formatted it using the entry "format C: /s" it should have those files.

Award 4.51pg should be able to see 33+gb unless it is some highly modified version.

When you open fdisk do you see any more partitions on it? The limitation might lie with fdisk.

You could go to www.allbootdisks.com and make a new floppy for 98se which will have a later version of fdisk and format.com and try them. You could also run scandisk in ms-dos mode and do the thorough test, but the drive needs to be formatted first. You may simply be using too old a version of the floppy.

[dlw]

Did format C: /s
There is only one partition according to fdisk.
It is at 100% of hd.
Downloaded boot cd 6.22
fdisk still only finds 8gb.

I need to go.
Will start again tomorrow am.
Hope you can still help as I'm lost.

dlw

[Murray S.]

Award 4.51pg should be able to see 33+gb unless it is some highly modified version.

The fact you have Award version 4.51PG doesn't mean squat!!!

You may be using an Award BIOS version 4.51PG, but it's customized by the motherboard manufacturer--sometimes heavily. A dozen motherboards could have Award BIOS 4.51PG and each would be different if they were each from a different manufacturer.

To get the answer, check with the motherboard manufacturer and/or chipset vendor. The motherboard manufacturer is really the one responsible for the BIOS, since the BIOS--although it might be from Award--is customized for your specific motherboard and chipset. For example, if you know you're using a Tyan Trinity 100AT s1590s motherboard and you're using BIOS version 1.16c, you can find out the maximum supported hard disk capacity (which, in this case, would be 36GB.).

Murray